Mac Pro users have been long awaiting updated models from Apple, but their hopes seem not to come true this year. In early September Intel reported that it was planning to launch new Sandy Bridge E processors and their Xeon E5 equivalents suitable for the Mac Pro on November 15th. But now the company has postponed release of its chips to early 2012, having dashed hopes for an updated Mac Pro.

In September, during Intel Developer Forum event in San Francisco, new information came to light implying that Xeon E5 launch is postponed until the first quarter 2012. Indeed, according to the latest Intel roadmaps, all Xeon E5 processors are going to be delayed by one quarter.

Apple will likely to adapt the Xeon E5-2600 series processors (likely, the E5-2620, E5-2650 and E5-2670) in the next Mac Pros, offering options of 12 or 16 cores.

We have already seen some teardowns and estimates of the cost of the new iPhone 4S by iFixit and Chipworks. Now iSuppli offers its teardown and some new facts.

In the case of the iPhone 4S, [IHS iSuppli analyst Andrew] Rassweiler estimates that the BOM cost ranges from $188 for the 16 gigabyte version of the iPhone 4S to $207 for the 32GB version and $245 for the 64GB version. Apple and its carrier partners sell the phones for $199, $299 and $399 respectively, typically with a two-year contract for wireless service that carriers use to subsidize the cost they pay Apple.

iSuppli didn’t find in the iPhone 4S a noise cancellation chip from Audience that was found in the iPhone 4. Such function may be implemented directly into A5 cheap that costs about $15. While iFixit found Toshiba flash memory in its iPhone 4S unit, IHS iSuppli expressed some surprise at finding Hynix memory in its unit. But as far as we know, Apple sources flash memory chips from different manufactures. They didn’t managed to find the manufacturer of the camera sensor, but estimated the cost of the camera module at $17.60.

The iPhone Dev-Team released jailbreak utility RedSn0w 0.9.9b6 for both Windows and Mac users. The new version offers full iOS 5 jailbreak support for Windows and fixes Location Services issue for iPhone 3GS devices running the 06.15 baseband. This is still a tethered jailbreak for iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS, iPad 1, iPod Touch 3G and iPod Touch 4G:

We've released version 0.9.9b6 of redsn0w, with both a functional fix and cosmetic fix for iOS5 jailbreakers. For iPhone3GS owners with the 06.15 baseband, this redsn0w eliminates the network crash you saw when using Location Services in iOS5 (in fact, you don't even need to disable Location Services anymore during the initial setup). The cosmetic fix is to the visual countdown you see when going into DFU mode.

It's okay to re-run this redsn0w over an existing device jailbroken at iOS5. Just choose "Jailbreak" again and de-select Cydia (in other words, all the checkboxes will be unchecked). If you are lucky enough to have an old-bootrom iPhone3GS, please pre-select the IPSW first (redsn0w can't yet auto-detect the FW version of your old-bootrom 3GS if it's already been jailbroken).

Just as redsnow 0.9.9b5 the new version supports creating custom firmwares with preserving baseband (modem) version for unlock. Unfortunately right now custom firmware functionality works only with Mac version.

Apple CEO Tim Cook and Samsung Chief Operating Officer Lee Jae-yong are said to have discussed their long-term component supply relationships during a two-hour meeting that took place earlier this week.

The meeting took place Monday after Lee attended a memorial service for Steve Jobs, Apple's late co-founder, and as Samsung and Apple remain locked in fierce legal disputes to control the global smartphone and tablet computer markets.

Lee noted that the companies made agreement for 2012 and would like to prolong their cooperation for 2013-2014. Apple has been keen to make long-term supply agreements with component suppliers, sometimes prepaying billions of dollars in advance to secure massive supplies looking over several years and overcoming or better to say excelling its competitors.

Last month, we heard rumors that Apple had signed an agreement with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) for production of the next-generation A6 and A7 chips destined for future iOS devices. Samsung manufacture the A4 and A5 chips for Apple, but Apple seems to try to shift to TSMC because of difficult relations and legal battle between Apple and Samsung.

The Korea Times now reports that Apple will indeed primarily be sticking with Samsung for A6 production.

"Apple has been in talks with Samsung over shipment of its A6 quad-core mobile processor (AP) chips to be used in the next iPhone. It appears that Apple clearly has concluded that Samsung remains a critical business partner," an executive from an Apple parts supplier based in Korea said on condition of anonymity.

He said that Samsung has been increasing the output of the Apple-designed A6 chips in its manufacturing plant in Austin, Texas.

iLounge has tested the iPhone 4S battery life, comparing it with the iPhone 4, and found out several interesting facts. As Apple claims in the iPhone 4S official specifications, the new smartphone has improved talk time but worse standby time as compared to the iPhone 4.

For tests with 3G Data, Audio Playback, Video Playback, and Video Recording, the iPhone 4S came in under the iPhone 4's battery life. For Wi-Fi and FaceTime testing it to be similar to the iPhone 4, and on Cellular Calls, the iPhone 4S is slightly better. Both media playback and recording were advantage of the iPhone 4S, comparing with the iPhone 4. The iPhone 4S is recording much higher resolution video than the iPhone 4.